Mar. 15, 2012

Mick Cronin jokes with his players as the Bearcats prepare Wednesday to depart for Nashville. / The Enquirer/Gary Landers

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NASHVILLE – It’s hard being 5-foot-7 in a 6-foot-7 world. Or so you’d think. For example, how do you go nose to nose with anyone? You might avoid cracking your skull on the hotel room shower head. But how do you see eye to eye?

Mick Cronin is 5-7. Genetics being what they are, he will never be Yancy Gates, who is 6-9. When Cronin is having a head to head with his big man, he means it metaphorically.

Think about it: Coaches such as Bob Huggins and the Thompsons (Johns II and III) have respect bestowed automatically. Huggs is a presence. His John Wayne-ness fills the room. Part of that is because he is a very large man. You gonna crack wise with that guy?

I’ve meant to ask Cronin this question for years. It’s easier now. UC is in the Madness for the second year in a row, and is favored to escape Round 1 again Friday, against Texas. Mick’s height is hardly an issue. Still, your stature shapes your personality. To an extent, what you look like is who you are.

And so I asked him Thursday, “What impact has your height had on your basketball life?’’

It has to have been harder for Mick Cronin. And truthfully, it has to have made him a better coach.

Cronin said he has never thought about it. Seriously. He believes his young age was far more problematic, when it came to landing a head coaching job. “How tall was John Wooden?’’ he asked. “Jeff Van Gundy, Rick Pitino?’’

Point taken. Except Wooden was Wooden and Pitino has a personality that could simultaneously charm snakes and kill them. Van Gundy, I have no idea.

Cronin said he also suffered because he was not a big-time college player. Up until just a few years ago, he said he’d walk into gyms and players didn’t recognize him. “That hurt me more than anything. If a kid doesn’t know who you are, you’re not big time, in his mind. If you were, he’d know who you are.’’

Winning more frequently – and attracting big-time recruit Lance Stephenson – has eased that predicament. Meantime, Cronin doesn’t lack for confidence. That’s a little-guy trait, too. “I was a great player,’’ he said.

“I tell my guys all the time, ‘Don’t get confused, I was a better player than you are. If I’d been 6-2, with different legs, you would have known about it’,’’ Cronin said. He also has bad knees, a result of his all-consuming love for the game as a child. “I played too much,’’ he explained. “All year. Day in and day out.’’

Three years ago, he had to stop playing. In practice before the Crosstown Shootout, Cronin simulated Xavier point guard Drew Lavender. “I couldn’t walk’’ afterwards, Cronin said. “It was all I could do to get to the game, it blew up so much. I couldn’t sit down during the game because I wouldn’t have been able to stand up.’’

His father, Hep, knew Mick’s playing days were done once Mick’s legs started sprouting hair. “In eighth grade, I had more hair than Chewbacca,’’ Mick allowed. Hep suggested Mick take up golf or dedicate himself to baseball. “I was devastated,’’ Mick recalled.

He persisted with basketball. Hep recalled Mick attending an all-star summer camp “thinking he was hot stuff.’’ There, Mick ran into a 6-4 guard who educated him somewhat. As Hep recalled it, his son came home and said, “I’m short, I’m white and I’m slow.’’

“That’s a bad combination,’’ Hep said Thursday.

Not entirely.

Cronin’s size helped define his demeanor. “It makes you tougher,’’ Hep said. “If you don’t toughen up as a small guy, you’re going to get run over. Being small, you have to make up for things. You have to be tough minded and physically tough. You can be 6-8 and soft. You can’t be 5-8 and be soft.’’

Also, it made Mick a point guard. Point guards know how to think the game better than anyone. Point guards make good coaches, in the same way backup utility infielders make good baseball managers. They study the game. “He’s been a point guard since third grade,’’ Hep said.

So, I got my answer. “In the coaching realm, my height hasn’t been a factor. Kids know who cares about them, and who knows what they’re talking about,’’ Cronin said.

The height thing is no thing. Plus, when Cronin gets on an airplane and flies across the country, his knees don’t feel annihilated when he arrives.